LATEST FROM THE BLOG

He had huge charm, a wicked sense of humour and great backbone.” Mike Northeast Peter was one of the ACT ‘Pioneers’ and was instrumental in the formation of the ACT in 1979 and the early development of the treasury profession. He was a member of the very first Council and Chairman of Council from 1982-84. His professional career was shaped by the first ever B.Com course at Birmingham University. Following the war, where he served as an infantryman in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and quickly established a taste for business turnarounds. Looking beyond

Christmas is just around the corner. As we rush around buying presents, meeting friends and celebrating with colleagues we should remember to put aside some time to think about our plans for the new year – including our career plan. 2016 has been an exciting year for the ACT and we have developed lots of great tools to help with your professional development. The mentoring scheme has had over 100 mentees join this year alone, and we have heard great things from both the mentor and mentee perspective. If you haven’t signed up as either a mentor or mentee yet

The recent Technology Risk and Smart Treasury forum offered a great opportunity to step out of day to day business for an afternoon and consider the future direction of treasury and technology. The first session presented by Andrew Fletcher from Thomson Reuters labs provided a fascinating insight into the developing tools available to track customer interests. The recent Brexit and US presidential elections were decided within the forecasting error of most opinion polls (and worse the polls typically showed a greater probability for remain and Hilary Clinton), dealing a blow to the forecasters and so it is easy to see

The final strategy document has been published and can be viewed here. The (Payment Services) PS forum has spent the last year talking to stakeholders across the UK to develop this strategy to meet perceived shortcomings in the UK payments infrastructure. The ACT responded to earlier drafts and calls for discussion. Members sit on the Forum and its sub groups. In general we agree to a strategy that foresees development of a more simple system which will be PSD2 compliant and seek further standardisation of file format to ease exchange of data. The impact on corporate treasurers, and their IT

Under the theme “working it wiser”, the second year of the ACT Working Capital conference gathered 150 treasury and finance experts in London on 22 November. Speakers and delegates discussed issues ranging from driving sustainable approaches and working capital management (WCM) to supply chain finance and the use of technology to achieve greater efficiency. “This conference built well on last year’s event, the wider participation from the attendees in the session lent itself well to help understand how our peers in industry go about the pro-active management of working capital”. James Marshall, Head of Treasury, Virgin Media “A recurring theme

The CertBALM® is the first benchmark qualification in Asset and Liability Management (ALM) and one which has been long awaited within the banking industry. Since the financial crisis the management of banks’ balance sheets has come to the forefront with wholesale changes being required in the way banks need to manage themselves. The CertBALM® will equip students with the fundamental techniques by which to be able to recognise, interpret and solve the practical problems arising on a day to day basis from the risks that occur when running a bank balance sheet. In addition, they will also be able to

The EACT’s monthly update can be found here. EU members are reminded that their UK operations will continue to be required to comply with EU regulations until Brexit occurs, and should expect much of the EU originated regulation to continue once completed. The UK is separately a member of the G20 and that organisation is the ultimate source of much of the change which has been brought into effect in the UK since 2008 albeit through the EU. Notable exceptions are: Financial Transaction Tax: FTT is being considered by 10 member states which do not include the UK and so

Corporate treasuries typically have limited discretion in managing market exposure and must routinely hedge foreign exchange and other identified exposures. The hedge to eliminate the risk is normally implemented shortly after a foreign exchange exposure is identified – often on the same day. The vast majority of hedges are implemented using forward rates structures because they are straight forward and provide a clear link to the underlying exposure. They also have the advantage of requiring virtually no up-front cost compared to an option trade. But there are embedded costs of hedging using forwards. Figure 1 shows that many emerging market currencies